Month: November 2023

People who get the flu vaccine may have improved heart health, according to a recent study published in Scientific Reports. Researchers from the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran, concluded that patients who received flu vaccinations had a 26% reduced risk of having a heart attack and were 33% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease. This finding is based on a review of five randomized controlled trials that focused on myocardial disease and influenza vaccines. CHILDHOOD PNEUMONIA SURGE REPORTED IN NETHERLANDS AMID OUTBREAK IN CHINA The patients who participated in the studies had all been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease previously and were 61 years old, on average. Out of the total of 9,059 patients, 4,529 of them received the flu vaccine, while 4,530 received a placebo shot. People who get the flu vaccine may have improved heart health, according to a recent study published in Scientific Reports. (iStock) After a nine-month period, 621 of the people who received the placebo shot experienced “major cardiovascular events,” compared to 517 of the patients who received the flu vaccine. Those outcomes included myocardial infarction, cardiovascular death and stroke. WHEN MEASURING HEART ATTACK RISK, ONE IMPORTANT RED FLAG IS OFTEN OVERLOOKED, DOCTORS SAY “Revealing a compelling insight into the potential benefits of influenza vaccination, our comprehensive meta-analysis, based on the latest randomized controlled trial data, demonstrates a significant interaction between influenza vaccination and the reduction of major cardiovascular events,” wrote the researchers of the study. “Notably, patients who received the influenza vaccine experienced a remarkable risk reduction of over 20% in cardiovascular death.” Patients who received flu vaccinations had a 26% reduced risk of having a heart attack and were 33% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) As for why influenza vaccines seem to reduce the risk, the researchers noted that the shot could prevent inflammation and secondary infections, while also stabilizing plaque amounts in the heart. The vaccine could also help stimulate the immune system, which the study authors noted is essential for cardiovascular health. SHOULD YOU GET THE COVID AND FLU VACCINES AT THE SAME TIME? Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, called the study “important” and said it “builds on what we already knew.” He was not involved in the research. Heart disease is the primary cause of death among U.S. adults, killing one person every 33 seconds, according to the CDC. (iStock) “It is not surprising that flu shots would decrease the risk of heart attacks,” Siegel told Fox News Digital. “The flu is one of the great enablers,” he went on. “It adds stress and inflammation to the body and decreases the overall immune response, all of which can lead to acute cardiac events.” The flu “adds stress and inflammation to the body and decreases the overall immune response.” The researchers called for further research to “elucidate the precise mechanisms driving this association and to explore the long-term impact of influenza vaccination on cardiovascular outcomes.” CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER In the meantime, they recommended that “health care providers and policymakers should take heed of these findings and consider prioritizing influenza vaccination for patients with recent cardiovascular disease as a feasible and potentially life-saving preventive measure.” Fox News Digital reached out to the study authors for additional comment. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Heart disease is the primary cause of death among U.S. adults, killing one person every 33 seconds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health. <!–> Melissa Rudy is health editor and a member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. –>

by Beth Donovan | Special to the Courier No one wants to talk about cardiovascular disease around the holidays, but what better time to bring up the conversation than when you are with the people you love the most? Maybe we should talk more about how to determine your own risk and what we are doing to protect ourselves. Perhaps that will motivate someone you love to consider their own risk and whether they should be doing more. Cardiovascular disease is a broad term which can largely be equated to coronary heart disease leading to heart attacks, and ischemic stroke, and causes more disease and death than any other disease in the United States. That may seem unlikely, but not so much when you consider it is the complication resulting from numerous other very common conditions: diabetes, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle. Genetics can be a factor as well. What we do every day contributes to or diminishes our risk of cardiovascular disease. There are many lifestyle factors that increase our risk, including smoking and eating foods high in cholesterol. There are also ways that we can reduce our risk including eating fresh fruits and vegetables, exercising, and keeping our blood sugar and blood pressure under control. You may think that if you are doing these things that your risk is low. But there is a better way to quantify your risk if you are between 40 and 75 years old. There is a free calculator which can predict your risk of having a cardiovascular disease event (heart attack or stroke) in the next 10 years at clincalc.com/cardiology. You just need to know your systolic blood pressure (the top number of your blood pressure calculation), total cholesterol, and HDL or “good” cholesterol. You simply plug those numbers into the calculator, answer a couple questions, hit calculate, and out comes the risk evaluation along with an interpretation. It goes on to recommend the statin dose that may be right for you, if needed. You can easily print the results to take to your next appointment to discuss with your healthcare provider. The U.S. Preventive Services Taskforce recommends clinicians prescribe a statin for the primary prevention of CVD for adults aged 40 to 75 who have one or more risk factors (i.e., dyslipidemia, diabetes, hypertension, or smoking) and an estimated 10-year risk of a cardiovascular event of 10% or greater. Furthermore, it recommends it may be appropriate for those with a 7.5% risk to take a statin medication even though the benefit is smaller in this group. A statin medication is not for everyone, but it could be lifesaving. Studies have shown that taking a statin medication can significantly lower the risk of death from a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke. Statins are not recommended to replace a healthy diet, regular exercise, maintaining a normal weight, and refraining from smoking. Because these medications are recommended by the USPSTF and are given a B rating, the medications should be covered for eligible adults by your health insurance company at no cost to you. Not every statin is required to be covered, but at least one must be available as a preventive medication for those adults who have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is a panel of preventive medicine experts who volunteer to review literature and clinical guidelines; develop recommendations for preventive screenings, medications, and counseling; and assign grade recommendations. You can download an app or go the uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/webview to learn which preventive screenings, medications or counseling services are recommended for you. Claremont resident Beth Donovan, PA-C, practiced as a physician assistant for 20 years and served as chair of legislative affairs for the California Academy of Physician Assistants from 2004 to 2012. She is on the advisory board for Keck Graduate Institute’s Physician Assistant Program.

More than 4,000 abstracts were presented during the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2023 and Resuscitation Science Symposium 2023, held earlier this month in Philadelphia. Here are some of the important scientific findings that could impact your heart and stroke health. Next wave of AI prediction models aims to predict risk of heart attack and stroke, as well as heart valve disease Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning models may help to predict the risk of cardiovascular disease events and detect heart valvular disease, according to two preliminary research studies. One study found that artificial intelligence analyzing sound data of the heart recorded from a digital stethoscope was able to more accurately detect heart valve disease than a health care professional who listened to the heart with a traditional stethoscope. In another study, an AI/deep learning program effectively analyzed and sorted eye images of people with prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes to determine their risk of cardiovascular disease events, like heart attack and stroke. “Computational methods to develop novel predictors of health and disease -; ‘artificial intelligence” -; are becoming increasingly sophisticated,” said Dan Roden, M.D., FAHA, professor of medicine, pharmacology and biomedical informatics and senior vice-president for personalized medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, as well as chair of the Association’s Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine. “Both of these studies take a measurement that is easy to understand and easy to acquire and ask what that measurement predicts in the wider world.” Depressed? Anxious? Stressed? These could put you on the fast track to heart disease risk A study found that depression and anxiety may speed development of risk factors, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or Type 2 diabetes, that increase heart attack and stroke risk. Participants previously diagnosed with anxiety or depression developed a new risk factor on average six months earlier than those who did not have depression or anxiety. Depression and anxiety increased the risk for a major cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, by about 35%. A second study found that cumulative stress increased the risk of poor heart and brain health in two ways: by directly influencing physical well-being and increasing poor lifestyle behaviors, such as smoking and being sedentary, according to two new studies. “There are clear associations between psychological health and cardiovascular disease risk. These studies add to a growing body of data we have on how negative psychological health can increase the risk of heart and brain disease, They illustrate that health care professionals should be aware that negative psychological health -; things like depression or anxiety -; not only affect patient’s mental state of being, but also can impact their physical health and the risk for heart disease. So, these are not benign conditions, these are things for which we want to aggressively refer people to mental health professionals,” said Glenn N. Levine, M.D., FAHA, writing committee chair of the American Heart Associations’ 2021 Psychological Health, Well-Being, and the Mind-Heart-Body Connection scientific statement and master clinician and professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, chief of the cardiology section at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, both in Houston. AHA health information: How does stress affect the body? Heart disease risk higher among transgender adults in rural U.S. In a small study of adults living in the rural America, those who identified as transgender were more likely to have heart disease risk factors, like tobacco use, obesity and high blood pressure, than their cisgender peers. Transgender males had the highest odds of having cardiovascular disease risk factors. Transgender adults were more than six times more likely to use tobacco and almost four times more likely to have prediabetes or Type 2 diabetes. And those in the trans-male group were 13 times more likely to be obese. “The findings of this small study highlight two critical areas of concern – the potential increased cardiovascular risk among transgender people, along with the increased cardiovascular risk among people living in rural areas. These disparity gaps pack a one-two punch to our transgender patients and communities for a number of reasons,” said Carl Streed Jr., M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P., F.A.H.A. volunteer chair of the writing group for the American Heart Association statement on transgender and gender diverse populations, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and the research lead at the GenderCare Center at Boston Medical Center. “The physical risks are likely heightened by the mental stress that many LGBTQ+ people encounter due to discrimination that is often more prevalent in rural America, especially among states with policies limiting access to gender affirming care. The American Heart Association supports the need for more research and initiatives to ensure equitable health and health care for all people, especially persons and communities most at risk due to various diversity gaps in care whether they are based on racial, ethnic, sexual and/or gender identities, socioeconomic status or geography.” AHA health initiative: Pride with Heart A child’s race, ethnicity, neighborhood might influence survival after cardiac arrest Children can have cardiac arrests, too. And when they do, their race, ethnicity or neighborhood might impact survival and recovery, according to a new study. Hispanic and white children had similar odds of surviving and coming out of cardiac arrest in good neurological health. Black children were 26% less likely to survive to hospital discharge and 36% less likely to survive without neurological issues that kept them from fully resuming their daily lives. “The results from this observational work are compelling because the measured disparities in recovery are magnitudes different among white and Hispanic children in comparison to Black children,” said Sarah Perman, M.D., M.S.C.E., FAHA, an associate professor in the department of emergency medicine at Yale School of Medicine and chair of the Association’s Resuscitation Science Symposium 2023. “Exploring the drivers of these differences will be necessary to address the disparities in outcomes. Determining the reasons why Black children had cardiac arrest at a greater incidence also warrants more